Man Charged With Building Bomb

An Eatonville man was jailed Sunday after building a homemade bomb and threatening to use it to settle a dispute with a former girlfriend, an Orange County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

Ralph E. Williams, 40, 523 Carver St., was charged with possessing a fire bomb after he called deputies to his house at 1:42 p.m. Sunday, the spokesman said.

When deputies arrived Williams accused his girlfriend of stealing a television and videocassette recorder from his house, the spokesman said.

He then pulled out a large plastic container filled with a liquid that deputies said smelled like kerosene.

Williams poured the liquid into a bottle, took out an insulated copper wire and told deputies he had been to Vietnam and knew how to make bombs, the spokesman said. He threatened to go to his girlfriend's house and make it ''like another Vietnam,'' the spokesman said.

Williams was arrested at 2:42 p.m. while talking to deputies outside his house. He was held on $1,000 bond in Orange County Jail.

Deputies would not release the woman's name, but said she told them the property was purchased jointly with Williams.